This city will have its own story.
Yesterday was simply such a day full of experiences that I had to capture a few moments.
Sleeper bus – again
My last night in Phong Nha wasn’t cheap from my friends.
We went to a karaoke bar. We enjoyed the evening in a self-deprecating, liberated way. We destroyed the beer.
We were waiting for my bus at 2 am, so nothing could be more natural than to go and eat soup at 2:15 am. And drink two last beers.
My hostel manager friend took me to the bus on his motorbike. I got on the bus a little scared. This time I wasn’t worried about my previous bad experiences. But about the few liters of beer and the soup. There is no toilet on the sleeper bus…
Now I finally had a normal bed. A four-hour journey awaited me. I fell asleep immediately. I was happy to be able to rest for 4 hours.
I didn’t rest for four hours. Finally, I found a bus where I didn’t have to sleep folded up and half-sitting, bouncing from wall to wall. They woke me up after 3 o’clock.
At first I didn’t even know where we were. Then I looked at the map and saw that Hue was still an hour away. We had to transfer to a minibus.
Of course, everyone put the big bags in the bottom of the bus into the minibus themselves. So today I almost successfully left all my stuff. Luckily I got off in time. They had just closed the bus’s trunk when I went back to get my bag.
When I arrived in Hue, I immediately saw that this city would be another love. But everything in its own time.
Starbucks
While sitting on the bus, I checked to see if there was a Starbucks in the city. There is. We stopped four hundred meters from it.
So today at 7:01 I was the first guest. It will be easy to guess what time the cafe opened.
I spent quite a few hours there.
I also had time to find a room for myself. Today I chose a four-bed room. A mile from where I was sitting. Perfect shot.
Lunch
In the afternoon I went to my room.
But before that I ate one.
I chose a noodle soup. I put a lot of chili in it.
On the second day in the cave, there were a lot of small insects flying above the surface of the water. It was no coincidence that there were so many bats. Two or three insects thought of ending their lives in my eyes. Moreover, they all chose my left eye for themselves.
So this eye of mine has been quite sensitive for the past two days.
Like a good boy, I eat the noodles and meat with chopsticks. So sometimes a drop of soup ends up on the table.
Today, one of the drops found its way under my glasses. It did find one of my eyeballs. I leave it to the reader’s imagination to guess which side it was.
The problem with chili soup in your eyes is that it stings. But only if you open your eyes. So I tried to keep my left eye closed and read on. It was an interesting experience. I don’t want to repeat it too often. But I thought, maybe this cocktail will drive away the memory of the insects.
I was wrong.
The accommodation
I had to navigate a maze of streets to find my accommodation. The multi-storey house is located at the end of a quiet, secluded street.
One of the hosts greeted me with a huge smile on the street and asked how my day was. His wife welcomed me in an equally kind way. And with her help, an interesting secret about the relationship between Vietnam and Hungary finally came to light.
On Cat Ba Island, I first encountered the local recognition that “ah, you come from Hungary, the land of roses.” I wrote about it at the time. I didn’t understand it, I tried to look into this recognition, but I was unsuccessful. Since then, I have met several Vietnamese people who for some reason associate roses with Hungary. And they all told me that they had learned about it in primary school. I didn’t want to disappoint them, because – as far as I know – roses are not at all part of the Hungarian identity.
This strange connection came up again at the reception. The lady started searching the internet. And she solved the mystery.
I have noticed from the beginning that the name of my country is treated differently here in Asia. They ask in English, I tell them in English that it is “Hungary” and they don’t understand it. Then many people “translate it”. Ahha! Hungari.
And the solution to the “big rose secret” is the poem “The Bulgarian Rose”. Because Bulgary-Hungary is almost identical to the Asian pronunciation.
The Bulgarian rose was not only an exotic flower in Vietnam, but also a symbol of friendship and solidarity between socialist countries. That’s how it was included in the 5th grade textbook of elementary school at the time.
As a sign of my enthusiastic respect for the solution, let the poem stand here now.
| Bulgarian Rose
Oh, miraculous flower! In the seventeenth century Once each year you bloom, I remember the age of kings: Then came Hitler’s time. Yet every cruel tyrant Oh, miraculous flower, |
Hoa Hồng Bungari
Ôi loài hoa diệu kì! Hoa ở đâu chẳng biết Giữa bốn bề núi dựng Nhớ thời bọn vua chúa Đến thời bọn Hít-le Nhưng cả bọn bạo tàn Ôi loài hoa diệu kì! |
A little synchronicity in the room
I share a four-bed room with a young guy from the United Arab Emirates and two Chinese men.
The young guy was the only one in the room and we started talking.
We smiled and laughed a lot while listening to each other. Our stories are so similar, we think so much alike.
I told him a story from Laos that led to a realization. He says I won’t believe that my realization is his motto in life, he usually conveys the idea to others with the exact words I used.
We talked about our travels. I told him that my visa expires on September 16th, that’s when I’m leaving the country. He was, and I wasn’t surprised when it turned out that his visa also expires on that exact day.
There have been so many synchronicities in my life over the past two years that I greet him like an old friend every time.
Of course, it could be a simple coincidence that I share a room with a guy from the UAE on the fourth floor of a secluded hostel in a city of 1.2 million people, and our visas expire on the same day.
Words are meaningless. The experience and the feeling are what matter.
The first walk in the city
After we met, I went for a walk in the city.
I walked everywhere for several hours.
I had to hide from two heavy rains for a short or long time. I had dinner in a small restaurant. I talked to two guys who were sitting under a bridge and playing blues improvisations on an electric guitar.
I looked at the many people. As I found out, this is such a hot city that even the locals can’t stand it, so everyone hides in the coolness of the houses during the day. And they only come out in the evening. Well, I experienced this right away. It’s a bustling city.
And its streets at night showed me that it would be worth walking around here a lot.
And also that this city was a good choice.
Buy me a coffee?
If you enjoyed this story, you can buy me a coffee. You don’t have to – but it means a lot and I always turn it into a new adventure.
Buy a coffee for Steve
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